New Statesman Magazine And The National Union Of Journalists

EDM number 520 in 2008-09, proposed by John Cummings on 20/01/2009.
Categorised under the topics of Industrial relations and Press.

That this House is dismayed by the announcement of the management of the New Statesman not to recognise the National Union of Journalists (NUJ); notes that 15 out of 16 members of staff at the magazine are members of the NUJ and that the magazine shares a common history with the labour and trades union movements and should act as a model of employer-staff relations; remarks that instead the announcement coincides with the news that the new editor, Jason Cowley, is embarking on a series of redundancies of senior staff; recalls that the New Statesman has a proud record of supporting trades unionists and independent trades unions, from Solidarity in Poland to the Congress of South African Trade Unions in South Africa; further notes that the British trades union movement has historically advertised heavily in the magazine and that many of the New Statesman's readers are trades unionists who will be shocked to learn of the management's cavalier treatment of staff; and calls on the owners of the New Statesman to recognise the NUJ, to suspend the redundancies and to begin negotiations with the union over the future of the magazine.

This motion has been signed by a total of 37 MPs.